Wednesday, February 29, 2012

In Home Viewings: "Higher Ground"

Corinne (Vera Farmiga) grew up quite fast. The child of a
mismatched, unhappy marriage, she sought attention elsewhere and married young
and had a baby. Her husband, Ethan (Joshua Leonard), tried his hand as a
musician and on a band road trip their child nearly dies in a bus crash. After
this brush with death, Corinne and Ethan turn to the religion Corinne knew as a
child and end up becoming part of an evangelical community. In this commune the
young family finds peace and meaning and they embrace the conservative ideas of
the group’s leader, Bill (Norbert Leo Butz). But as her family grows, so does
Corinne’s doubt and as she wrestles with her faith, she finds that her
community is unable to handle her unrest.

Higher Ground
is based upon the memoir of screenwriter Carolyn S. Briggs and represents
Farmiga’s directorial debut. It is a bold, well-crafted film that, even in its
weaker moments, gives notice of what is to come from Farmiga from behind the
camera. Higher Ground displays a
thoughtfulness that is uncommon in religiously-oriented tales of this sort.
Rather than jumping head-first into stereotypes and harsh judgments, Farmiga
shows her characters to be simply human; these are good people with good hearts
even if they are misguided. The lack of condescension (for the most part) within
the film was refreshing and resulted in a deeper experience than I might have
expected. This isn’t a story about corporate religion so much as it is about
one woman’s personal struggles with faith and that difference is what makes Higher Ground worth watching.

On screen, Farmiga is charming and charismatic as ever. For
me, there are very few actresses who command attention the way Farmiga does.
She’s a tremendous talent, to be sure, but there is also an inherent presence about her that makes her a
wholly intriguing, captivating performer no matter what role she takes on. Her
portrayal here is understated and quiet but nonetheless powerful, an excellent
illustration of what a great actress can do when given room to work.

Unfortunately for Higher Ground, Farmiga’s work both behind and in front of the
camera is no match for the dull nature of the film’s narrative. This is one of
the more boring experiences you’ll likely have with a film this year, which is
a shame because I found the lacking storyline to be an immense hindrance to becoming
invested in the film. I don’t think this is a case of poor pacing or bad
choices from the director. In fact, I feel that Farmiga does a good job of piecing
together the story and fleshing out the parts that have the best chance of
becoming connectible. I believe the problem is found within the source material
which is simply doesn’t translate well to the screen. There’s very little within
Higher Ground that you could describe
as exciting, relevant, or even mildly intriguing. Some stories work well both as
pieces of literary non-fiction and films; some do not. In this case, that lack
of cinematic value results in a somewhat meaningless and decidedly
uninteresting viewing that doesn’t measure up to the quality of Farmiga’s work
on the project.